11/11/15
I have to be honest with you. At the time of writing this I am far from finished with Fallout 4. I've clocked just a pathetic 10 hours of play time. I'll be wandering the wastelands for weeks to come yet! So before you poopoo my score at the bottom of this review (spolier!), let me tell you. I've invested my bottle caps wisely, I've put points on my Intelligence and Perception perks. Trust me, I know how this trip to the Commonwealth is gonna pan out.
Fallout's first two forays were developed by Interplay and for me, they were nothing short of PC gaming perfection. In my mind they've not been bettered (yeah, I'm that guy). The writing, the humour, the peril, the look and tone. Don't get me started on the soundtrack! Perfect video games. Saying all this; I wasn't too downtrodden when Elder Scrolls developers Bethesda acquired the license in the mid-noughties. It meant I was going back to the future. A gross post-apocalyptic one in glorious 3D!
If you've never played a Fallout game before or you're excitedly waiting to get back to this retro-futuristic world after playing only the third, you're not going to be disappointed. Fallout 4 is basically Fallout 3 after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast. Same voice actors, same songs on the radio but It's been polished and buffed and those bugs have (mostly) been ironed out. Some time has been spent on the player character development this time round too. No longer are we the nameless, silent protagonist of the wastes. We start the game with our hero looking in the bathroom mirror, where we then get to customize them to the hilt. I crafted an absolute FOX to enter post-apocalyptia with. It's just a shame that once I got there the dialogue options available are quite limited and moronic. Which leads me to the games story or rather, how it is delivered. 4's story unravels in a very similar way to how 3's did and I never had a problems with this... until I met a Witcher. The Witcher 3 changed what I expected from an open world RPG. The way the story unfolded reminded me how it is when you discover whatever the latest Blu-ray box set it is you're blitzing. Although placed in a huge sprawling world my direction felt tight and focused. I wasn't just heading from settlement to settlement helping whatever simple character trope I found there like how it feels in Fallout 4. Yes, the dilapidated Boston is a joy to explore; it's up there with any sandbox Rockstar would produce at their creative best. But I'd say the Witcher had this too but with a sexy, violent story to boot. Like a Telltale game but where I've got the freedom to roam. Other than what seems like a rather pointless and boring crafting system, there's isn't much more depth to Fallout 4 than what was on offer in 2008's 3rd installment. This isn't necessarily a bad thing! Like life with a lover in which you didn't realised the excitement was gone, ignorance would've been bliss if only Geralt, the White Wolf, hadn't entered the scene earlier this year. But hell (pip)boys and girls, what do I know? Like I said I'm only ten hours in. I'm excited to see if things change out there in the Diamond city! 7/10